DETROIT — Two years after a wounded General Motors returned to the stock market, the symbol of American industrial might is thriving again.

Sunday marks the anniversary of GM's initial public stock offering in November 2010. The company has made money for 11 straight quarters, piling up more than $16 billion in profits. Its cars and trucks are selling for good prices. And sales are strong in China.

But there are signs of trouble. GM's U.S. sales, the prime driver of its profits, aren't rising as quickly as the overall market. There's been turmoil in the executive ranks, and the company is hemorrhaging cash in Europe.

Since the IPO, here are GM's achievements, struggles and question marks.

What is surprising is that the Liabilities went down as little as they did after a limited bankruptcy. Other Current Liabs only dropped from 28B to 20B and LT Liabs from about 10B to 7B, they still have plenty of hangover from the Union left to pay in the future. As long as they don't fund those that cash is already spoken for, until they go back to the well again.

.They should have gone into bankruptcy because the Bail Out was illegal! And speaking of the bailout, if a business can't make it after being given BILLIONS of free dollars and not required to pay ANY taxes for the next 10 years, they should have been liquidated!

The author seems puzzled as to why the stock is down while GM is "piling" up cash.

Question: "Why does Wall Street not like GM?"

Answer: They know GM is not stable. GM is making money in China. Period. But, their company is a small scale version of what is wrong with European countries and our own. Union obligations will slowly eat up that extra cash faster than it can come in. China profits will shrink as their economy matures. GM needed to go through bankruptcy and they probably will in the future which makes their stock worthless.

>Leadership has always seemed to be a problem at GM; it appears that it>remains to be seen if the current leadership is up to the task.

Government Motors can't even get a car guy to run the company. They have a telephone guy running the company. And not even a telephone guy from a good company like AT&T or Verizon. They had to take one from bankrupt and fraud-ridden MCI.

Had they gone bankrupt, they would have emerged stronger than ever. The union would be gone or their air would have been out of their sails. No cost of $5,000 plus added to cost of each car to pay retirement benefits which are outragious. Pay is far too high for the skills possessed. That is true of others who have unionized jobs such as the school teachers in some parts of the country. REMEMBER THE BOND HOLDERS WHO WERE TOTALLY SCREWED OUT OF ALL THEIR INVESTMENTS BY OBAMA.

Oh come on orphancarguyPE, GM still owes U.S. taxpayers $27 billion, and U.S. taxpayers still own under a third of GM, or 500 million shares, which remain underwater. The stock will have to trade at around $53 a share for taxpayers to breakeven; they currently trade at around $23. In August, the Treasury Dept. revised higher the cost of the auto bailout by $3.4 billion, up from the prior estimate of $21.7 billion.

Maybe out of the goodness of their heart they can pay the gov't back for the loss that has accrued on the Government's "bad" investment. Let's do the math: 13.4 billion under Bush + 36.1 billion under Obama = 49.5 billion. 23.1 billion has been repaid as of March, 2012. That leaves outstanding 500 million shares of commons stock and 26.4 billion to go. With the stock price at $23.85, If sold on Monday at that price, the Gov't would earn 11.9 billion (not counting commissions). This would be a loss of 14.5 billion. With $16 billion in the bank, I think they could make up the difference and we won't fret about the lost interest money on the deal.